Echo’s Unfinished Business

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, Episode 4 Review

Of all the Clones we’ve come to know during Star Wars: The Clone Wars, few have stood out as much as Domino Squad. As this FANDOM Article puts it, this quintet of Clone Troopers was abnormally quirky. Once they stepped up, though, they seemed like they would accomplish great things, and several of them did. Then one by one, they all died. However, the final season opened with the reveal that Echo was alive. Thanks to the Bad Batch, Rex, and Anakin, they rescued him from being used as a living computer. However, Echo has unfinished business with the Separatists, and regarding his future.

In a last-ditch attempt to retake Anaxes, Echo decides to use his cybernetics to mess with the droids. So they take Anakin, Rex, and the Bad Batch Squad to sneak aboard Admiral Trench’s ship to do just that.

Now, Tom Kane’s opening narration leaves us with the interesting question of whether Echo can still be trusted. Could years of captivity led to brainwashing by the Separatists? Considering how his comrades accidentally left him behind, it would be understandable for him to hold a grudge. However, I knew from the get go that Echo was going to stay loyal to his brothers, even if the Bad Batch didn’t feel the same. It also makes for unnecessary drama in the scheme of the episode.

Jedi Are Awesome and Anakin Channels his Vader

The real drama, though, comes in the form of Obi-Wan and Mace Windu’s attack on the main Separatist facility. Mace, in particular, gets a chance to show off how much of a badass he is. In a moment that would make Samuel L. Jackson proud, Mace’s voice actor gives the following speech to the battle droids.

They should have taken the offer.

However, the main drama this episode came from Anakin himself, who’s gotten a backseat most of this season. We’re only a few months away from Revenge of the Sith, and Anakin’s transformation into Darth Vader. However, the Clone Wars and other materials have shown us that his turn wasn’t sudden. We’ve seen Anakin give in to his dark side several times in the show’s run, but “Unfinished Business” gave us his most Vader-esque moment yet. When he corners Trench on the bridge to get the codes to disarm a bomb, he makes it clear he’ll kill the enemy commander if he refuses; and he does! Granted, Trench tried to attack him, so it was self defense. Still, it was very unsettling to see him do this.

I said in another post that one of the Jedi’s biggest failures was their inability to truly help Anakin, and as we see in this episode, he needs help. He’s been fighting a war for three years and has lost so many friends and loved ones to it. As a result, he became protective of those he had left to the point he’d kill in cold blood. It’s part of the reason why he becomes Vader, and we’re already seeing what he’s going to become in just a few short months. It’s a sad sight, a truly sad sight.

The Future of Echo?

In the end, Echo is able to help the Republic retake Anaxes, and is promised medals and praise coming his way. However, and I wish they had explored this more, Echo realizes that he may not have a place in the regular Clone Army anymore. His cybernetics, while useful, won’t exactly help him in the heat of battle. In addition, while he has Rex, the rest of Domino Squad, his brothers, his family, is dead.

Thankfully, that’s where the Bad Batch comes in. Domino Squad was always quirky and one step away from being ‘defectives’. the Bad Batch could have ended up like them had things gone differently with their genetics. So, after admitting they were wrong to doubt him, the group offers Echo a place with them, which he accepts.

I’m happy about this end to the Bad Batch arc of The Clone Wars for two reasons. Firstly, it’s bringing Echo’s story full circle in a way. He lost his old family in Domino Squad, but now has a new one in the Bad Batch where he’ll fit right in. Secondly, it leaves the door open for future writers to tell more stories about Echo and his new comrades. What happens to them after the rise of the Empire, and what sort of things do they do? So much potential to be had!

However, I think the show’s ending this arc at the best possible time. I want to see Ashoka’s story continue next!

I Give “Unfinished Business” a 4.5/5

By the way, I loved Wrecker in this episode. “This is the happiest day of my life!”

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